Verse 25 - Living from Greatness

[Eva Libre]

25th Verse

 

There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

It is serene.  Empty.

Solitary.  Unchanging.

Infinite.  Eternally present.

It is the Mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name,

I call it the Tao.

 

I call it great.

Great is boundless;

boundless is eternally flowing;

ever flowing, it is constantly returning.

 

Therefore, the Way is great,

heaven is great,

earth is great,

people are great.

 

Thus, to know humanity,

understand earth.

To know earth,

understand heaven.

To know heaven,

understand the Way.

To know the Way,

understand the great within yourself.

 

 

Contemplation/Meditation Verse

I come from greatness,

          I attract greatness,

I am greatness.

 

 

Do The Tao Now

 

Copy the following words and apply them to yourself:

 

I came from greatness.  I must be like what I came from.

I will never abandon my belief in my greatness and the greatness of others.

 

Read these words daily, perhaps by posting them conspicuously where you can see them.  They will serve to remind you of the truth of your own greatness.  Meditate for ten minutes today, focusing on your inner greatness.

 

Source - Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life (Living the Wisdom of the Tao)

by Dr Wayne W Dyer

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Trust in your own greatness.

 

You are not this body you occupy, which is temporary and on its way back to the nowhere from which it came.  You are pure greatness . . . precisely the very same greatness that creates all of life.  Keep this thought uppermost in your mind and you'll attract to yourself these same powers of creation:  The right people will appear.  The exact events that you desire will transpire.  The financing will show up.  That's because greatness attracts more of its own self to itself, just as thoughts of inadequacy act upon a belief that ensures that deficiency will become your reality.  Affirm the following to yourself over and over until it becomes your automatic inner response to the world:  I come from greatness.  I attract greatness.  I am greatness. 

[Eva Libre]

Advice from Dr Dyer -

 

Look for beliefs that contradict your status

as a being of greatness.

 

Catch yourself in the midst of any utterance that reflects your belief that you're average.  Silently speak warmly to that belief and ask it what it wants.  It may think it has to protect you from disappointment or pain, as it probably did earlier in your existence.  But with continued accepting attention, the feeling will always eventually admit that it wants to feel great.  So let it !  You're good enough to withstand the passing disappointments and pain that afflict life on this planet -- but trying to protect yourself by believing that you don't embody greatness is overkill.

 

Look for these misbeliefs and give them the chance to transform to what they (and you) really want.  Whatever you desire to become or to attract to yourself, make the internal shift from It probably won't happen for me to It is on its way !  Then begin the process of looking for even minute evidence that what you desire is indeed on its way.  It's crucial to keep this ancient axiom in mind:  I get what I think about, whether I want it or not.  So think about how fortunate you are to have greatness located within yourself.  Now you can live the ultimate paradox:  You can be greatness and be nobody, simultaneously.

 

[Eva Libre]

From Richard Grossman - The Tao of Emerson

 

From James Legge - The Texts of Taoism, 1891

 

There was something undefined and complete,

          coming into existence before Heaven and Earth.

How still it was and formless,

          standing alone, and undergoing no change,

          reaching everywhere and

          in no danger of being exhausted !

It may be regarded as the Mother of all things.

 

I do not know its name, and

          I give it the designation of the Tao

          (the Way or Course).

Making an effort to give it a name

          I call it the Great.

 

Great, it passes on in constant flow.

Passing on, it becomes remote.

Having become remote, it returns.

Therefore, the Tao is great;

Heaven is great; Earth is great;

And the sage is also great.

In the universe there are four that are great,

And the sage is one of them.

 

Man takes his law from the Earth;

The Earth takes its law from Heaven;

Heaven takes its law from the Tao.

 

The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

 

 

From the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Monadnoc" (poem), "The World-Soul", "Concord Hymn" (poem), "Nature" (poem), "Fate" (poem), "History", "Beauty"

For the world was built in order

And the atoms march in tune,

Rhyme the pipe, and time the warder,

The sun obeys them and the moon.

 

We cannot learn the cipher

That's writ upon our cell.

Stars taunt us by a mystery

Which we could never spell.

 

The conscious stars accord above,

          the waters wild below.

For nature listens in the rose

          and hearkens in the berry's bell.

There is a melody born of melody

          which melts the world into a sea.

Nature is a mutable cloud,

          Which is always and never the same.

 

Nothing divine dies.

The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind,

          and not for barren contemplation,

          but for new creation.

[Eva Libre]

From Vimala McClure - The Tao of Motherhood

 

25

DEPENDENCE

 

Eternal Consciousness is not

a thing.  It has many names and

no name.  It is within and beyond

everything.  It is the essence of

us all.

 

Your child depends on you.  You

depend on the earth.  The earth

depends on the universe.  The

universe depends on the Supreme.

 

The Supreme is subject to

nothing.  It is the Great Mother,

and She holds you in the palm

of her hand.

[Eva Libre]

From Tao Te Ching - The Definitive Edition by Jonathan Star

 

Something formless, complete in itself

There before Heaven and Earth

Tranquil, vast, standing alone, unchanging

It provides for all things yet cannot be exhausted

It is the mother of the universe

I do not know its name

          so I call it "Tao"

Forced to name it further

I call it

          "The greatness of all things"

          "The end of all endings"

I call it

          "That which is beyond the beyond"

          "That to which all things return"

 

From Tao comes all greatness --

          It makes Heaven great

          It makes Earth great

          It makes man great

 

Mankind depends on the laws of Earth

Earth depends on the laws of Heaven

Heaven depends on the laws of Tao

But Tao depends on itself alone

          Supremely free, self-so, it rests in its own nature 

[Eva Libre]

Tao Te Ching - The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao-Tzu

A New Translation by Victor H Mair

based on the recently discovered Ma-Wang-Tui Manuscripts

 

25 (69)

 

There was something featureless yet complete,

          born before heaven and earth;

Silent -- amorphous --

          it stood alone and unchanging.

 

We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth.

Not knowing its name,

          I style it the "Way".

If forced to give it a name,

          I would call it "great".

Being great implies flowing ever onward,

Flowing ever onward implies far-reaching,

Far-reaching implies reversal.

 

The Way is great,

Heaven is great,

Earth is great,

The king, too, is great.

 

Within the realm there are four greats,

          and the king is one among them.

 

Man

          patterns himself on earth,

Earth

          patterns itself on heaven,

Heaven

          patterns itself on the Way,

The Way

          patterns itself on nature.

[Eva Libre]

Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

 

There is something, amorphous and complete, that was born before Heaven and Earth.

   

Amorphous, we are unable to know it, yet the myriad things by it are made complete.  Thus the text says it is "amorphous and complete". (1)  We do not know whose child it could be, therefore it "was born before Heaven and Earth".

 

Obscure, oh, and, immaterial, oh, it stands alone, unchanged.

 

Jiliao [ordinarily, "silent and empty/vague"] means "without physical form or substance" [wu xingti].  Nothing exists to match it.  Therefore the text says: "it stands alone".  In the end it always transforms itself back to what it was at the start, never losing its constancy.  Thus the text says that it is "unchanged".

 

It operates everywhere but stays free from danger, thus we may consider it the mother of all under Heaven. (2)

 

Operating everywhere, nothing out of its reach yet never in any danger, it begets and keeps whole the great physical form [daxing]. (3)  Thus it may be considered the mother of all under Heaven.

 

We do not know its name.

 

Names [ming] are used to determine forms [xing], but, amorphous and complete, it has no form, so we cannot make any such determination.  Thus the text says that "we do not know its name".

 

So style it "Dao" [Way].

 

Names [ming] are used to determine forms, and style names [zi] are used to designate [cheng] attributes [ke].  to speak of "Dao" [Way] is derived from the fact that absolutely nothing fails to follow it and because, of all the terms that might be used to address the "amorphous and complete", this one has the broadest meaning.

 

Forced to give it a name, we call it "great".

 

The reason we style it "Dao" is that, of all the terms that might be used to address it, this one has the broadest meaning.  Seeking the reason why this style name is assigned to it, we find that it is connected with the notion of greatness.  But once such a connection [xi] exists, separation [fen] is due to occur, and, once separation occurs, all sense of what it ultimately means is lost.  Thus the text says, "forced to give it a name, we call it 'Great'."

 

"Great" refers to the way it goes forth.

 

"Goes forth" means "operates", so the meaning here is not restricted just to the single sense of great as in "great body".  As it operates everywhere, there is no place it does not reach.  Thus the text says, "goes forth".

 

"Goes forth" describes how it is far-reaching, and "far-reaching" describes its reflexivity.

 

"Far-reaching" means "to reach the ultimate".  As it operates everywhere, there is both nothing that lies beyond its infinite reach and no particular direction of operation that it favors over any other.  Thus the text says: "far-reaching".  Because it does not subordinate itself to that to which it goes, as substance, it "stands alone".  this is why the text refers to its "reflexivity".

 

Thus the Dao is great, Heaven is great, Earth is great, and the king is also great.

 

"Between Heaven and Earth, of all things endowed with life, Man is the most valued", (4) and the king is the master of men.  Although he might not be in charge of something great, he is still great and a cohort of the other three.  

 

Within the realm of existence there are the four greats.

 

The "four greats" are the Dao, Heaven, Earth, and the king.  All things have designations or names, but, as such, these are not what they ultimately are.  As for speaking of "Dao", this has a derivation.  First there is this derivation and only then do we refer to it as "Dao".  Although this is the greatest of all equivalents for it, however, it falls short of the greatness of that for which no equivalents exist.  That for which no equivalents exist cannot be named.  Thus the text says "realm of existence".  The Dao, Heaven, Earth, and the king are all included among that for which no equivalents exist.  Thus the text says: "Within the realm of existence there are the four greats".

 

And the king has title to one of these.

 

He occupies the position of a "great" as the master of men.

 

Man takes his models from Earth; Earth takes its models from Heaven; Heaven takes its models from the Dao; and the Dao takes its models from the Natural.

 

"To take models from" means "to follow the example of".  It is by taking his models from Earth that Man avoids acting contrary to Earth and so obtains perfect safety.  It is by taking its models from Heaven that Earth avoids acting contrary to Heaven and so achieves its capacity to uphold everything.  It is by taking its models from the Dao that Heaven avoids acting contrary to the Dao and so achieves its capacity to cover everything.  It is by taking its models from the Natural that the Dao avoids acting contrary to the Natural and so realizes its own nature.  To take models from the Natural means that when it exists in a square, it takes squareness as its model, and when it exists in a circle, it takes circularity as its model: it does nothing that is contrary to the Natural.  "The Natural" is a term for that which has no equivalents exist, an expression for that which has infinite reach and scope.(5)  As using knowledge falls short of being without the capacity for knowing, so physical forms and earthbound souls fall short of embryonic essences and images; embryonic essences and images fall sort of being free form forms, and to have the modes [yin and yang] falls short of being without them. (6)  Thus each takes its models from the other in turn.  The Dao complies with the Natural, which results in Heaven having something to rely on [the Dao], Heaven takes its models from the Dao, which results in Earth having something to emulate [Heaven]; Earth takes its models from Heaven, which results in Man finding images there [in the Earth].  The way the king becomes master is by treating what he rules as a single entity. 

 

Text, in Italics above, is Wang Bi's commentary.

The notes below, are from the translator, Richard John Lynn -

(deb's note - "section" is used for verse in these notes.)

 

(1)  Cf. section 1 of Wang's Outline Introduction.

 

(2)  Cf. section 52, second passage.

 

(3)  "The great physical form" refers to the sum of all physical existence: the grand, total embodiment of the Dao.  See Jundao (The Dao of the sovereign), in Xunzi (The sayings of Master Xun) (ca. 310-ca. 200 BCE), 8:317B; cf.  On the Grand Embodiment of the Perfect Way, in Knoblock, Xunzi, 2:184-85: "Thus, the Son of Heaven does not look yet sees, does not listen yet hears, does not think yet knows, does not move yet accomplishes: rather, like a clod of earth he sits alone on his mat, and the world follows him as though it were of a single body with him, just as the four limbs follow the dictates of the mind.  This may indeed be described as the Great Embodiment".  That is, the perfect ruler operates like the Dao itself.

 

(4)  Wang quotes Shengzhi (Government of the sage), section 9 of the Xiaojing (Classic of filial piety); see Xing Bing et al., Xiaojing zhushu (Commentaries and subcommentaries on the Classic of Filial Piety), 5:1a.

 

(5)  Evidence suggests that the text here might be corrupt: In his commentary to Sun Chuo's (314-71) Tiantaishan fu (Rhapsody on roaming the Celestial Terrace Mountains), Li Shan (ca. 630-89) quotes Wang Bi's commentary to this passage, "Heaven takes its models from the Dao; and the Dao takes its models from the Natural", but instead of wucheng zhi yan (a term for that which no equivalents exist) his quotation has wuyi zhi yan (a term for that for which there is no meaning).  See Wenxuan, 11:3.  In addition, the Qing era scholar Hong Yixuan (1765-1837) in his Dushu zonglu (Collected notes on works read) observes that the Tang monk Falin in his polemical treatise against Daoism, the Bian zheng lun(Treatise on determining what is correct; dated 626), cites this passage in the Laozi and appears to quote from a version of Wang Bi's commentary that is quite different: "As such, the Dao of Heaven and the Dao of Earth are not at all contrary to each other, and this is why the text refers to the 'taking of models'.  'The Natural' is an expression for that for which no equivalents exist and which has infinite reach and scope.  'The Dao' is a term of the utmost wisdom and ingenuity."  I suspect that Falin is paraphrasing rather than quoting Wang's text and cannot agree with Hong Yixuan when he uses this discrepancy as evidence that Wang's commentary to the Laozi, here at least, was "atched together" by later writers.  See Lou, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 68 n. 28.

 

(6)  Cf. section 4.

[Eva Libre]

"The Lunar Tao - Meditations in Harmony with the Seasons" by Deng Ming-Dao

Moon 3, Day 26  "Grain Rains"  Day 11 - Lunar Tao Day 86  pg 102

 

The Earth

 

Heaven sends down all its goodness.

The earth sends up all its goodness.

 

Our feet must touch the ground.  None of us float.  We have to walk on the earth.  Heaven is above.  Earth is below.  People live in between.  There is no separation between heaven and earth.  Heaven touches the earth everywhere.  The earth rises to touch heaven everywhere.  Therefore, we must all have our feet on the ground and our bodies and heads in heaven.

 

Furthermore, there is not one thing about us that is not of heaven or earth.  The air we breathe is of heaven.  The earth provides us with every material aspect of our lives.  Earthing we use, everything that shelters us, everything that feeds us is of the earth.

 

When we die, we return to the earth.  Whether we are buried or cremated, in time every single particle will go back to the earth.  Everywhere, and in great and constant profusion, we see what happens next: the earth receives all the wastes and all the dead and brings forth miraculous life.  Grass grows on the tombs by the next rains.  The earth never stops transforming the dead into the living.

 

The earth sends up all its goodness,

for you're in heaven and heaven is in you.

[Eva Libre]

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version

 

There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

It is serene.  Empty.

Solitary.  Unchanging.

Infinite.  Eternally present.

It is the mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name,

I call it the Tao.

 

It flows through all things,

inside and outside, and returns

to the origin of all things.

 

The Tao is great.

The universe is great.

Earth is great.

Man is great.

These are the four great powers.

 

Man follows the earth.

Earth follows the universe.

The universe follows the Tao.

The Tao follows only itself.

 

 

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names For Joy

- Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

 

There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

 

In the beginning was the word.  It happens when you wake up in the morning.  The word is yours.  That's how the world is created.

 

Before the beginning, there is only reality, formless and perfect, solitary, infinite, free.  There's no name for it, there's no ripple of a name.  The name is the ripple.  In the ripple the whole lake arises.  No ripple, no lake.

 

What's real is nameless.  It doesn't change, it doesn't flow, it doesn't leave or return, it doesn't even exist, it's beyond existence or non-existence.  If you call it something, you get nothing.  So call it "the Tao" if you like; that's as good a name as any.  Whatever you call it, that isn't it.  And it's always a beginning.

[Eva Libre]

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 25 -

 

Many of the scholars who have written about the Tao Te Ching over the centuries consider this 25th verse to be one of the most significant lessons in the entire manuscript.  In my research, all the translations of this passage actually include the word great to describe it.

 

This verse tells the story that even before the beginning there existed "something formless and perfect".  It goes on to say that this formless perfection is the "Mother of the universe".  Even though it's nameless, it's called the "Tao", and it's synonymous with what is great.  That is, there's nothing within the Tao that is the opposite of great -- there's nothing that's puny, insignificant, weak, unimportant, or even average.

 

The story appears to want the reader to realize there's a pure, timeless energy that's within everything on the planet and that remains uncontaminated by the solid appearance of form.  The conclusion is a directive to the student, who is you, the reader.  To know this formless perfection, you must "understand the great within yourself".  You're the central character in this wonderful saga !

 

Since you're animated by the eternal Tao, this tale's message of greatness invites you to change the way you live and to see the life you're living change.  You can begin to do so by examining thoughts and ideas that are inconsistent with this phenomenal observation made by Lao-tzu, which has been echoed by others throughout history.  In her book The Journey, which was published in 1954, Lillian Smith describes it like this:

 

The need that one feels every day of one's life,

even though one does not acknowledge it. 

To be related to something bigger than one's self,

something more alive than one's self,

something older and something not yet born,

that will endure through time.

 

That enduring "Something" confirms your greatness, your absolute connection to the infinite.  There's a sense of being permanently aligned with a sort of senior partner that is greatness itself.

 

Lao-tzu advises you to notice the planet, its people, and the heavens and see greatness.  Next, look at yourself and see that you're a component of them all.  That is, befriend what appears to be the great mystery of creation by discovering the greatness within you, then bask in the joy of noting the greatness you share with heaven, Earth, and all of its people.  By persistently hanging on to your own "greatness heritage", you ensure that the always-present Tao is consciously available.  From a perspective of greatness, only greatness can emerge from you; from an inner perspective of inferiority, you only attract events that align with those beliefs.

 

Your greatness won't be found in a classroom; an apprenticeship; a teacher; or flattering comments from well-meaning family members, friends, or lovers.  It is within you.  It's crucial for you to become conscious of the greatness that constantly flows through you -- to do so, meet it in meditative moments of gratitude, and cease to be influenced by contrary points of view.

 

In particular, watch and listen for the critical comments that originate from your own inner dialogue.  When such thoughts emerge in your mind, let them tell you what they want.  If you allow those not-so-great notions to speak, you'll always discover that what they really want is to feel good.  Give them the time they need to trust that there's no payoff for their existence, and they will happily merge into the greatness within you.  Accessing this quality allows you to participate in the greater whole, where the power of the Tao flows unimpeded by fearful self-judgment.  Change the way you live by tapping into this greatness, and the life you're living will literally change. 

[Nada Jung]

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